Spring-hinge.



G. H. OGUMPAUGH.

SPRING HINGE. I APPLICATION FILED fm. 25, 190e.

lof..

UNiTED STATES Patented December 1, 1908.

CHARLES Hl OOUMPAUGH, OF ROCHESTER, NEV YORK.

SPRING-HINGE.

srncrrrcAron forming part of Letters Patent No. 745,891, dateaneceniber 1, 1903.

Application led February 25, 1903. Serial No. 145,006. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES H. OcUM- PAUGH, a resident of Rochester, in the county of Monroe and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in SpringHinges; and l do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to Which it pertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates to spring-hinges, and has for its object to render the spring after it has been put under tension by a partial opening of the door practically inoperative, thereby leaving 'the door free to stand either partially or entirely open.

The invention consists in the construction hereinafter described and pointed out.

Figure 1 is afront elevation ofthe improved hinge, a door-closing spring being indicated in a position corresponding to the closed situation of the door. Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of the saine. Eig. 3 is a plan. Figs. 4 and 5 are perspective views of the respective leaves of the hinge; and Fig. 6 is an enlarged partial section on line 6 6 of Fig. 1,.shoWing a spring-neutralizing device, the spring being shown in section in a normal or initial situation and indicated by broken lines in an inoperative situation, to which it is moved as by the opening of a door.

Numeral 1 indicates a hinge-leaf having knuckles 2 and 3 and supporting and holding a spring 4 by means of a bridge-piece 5, covering a socket to receive the end of the spring. The spring, which has a coil 6, may be further held in an operative situation by a post or leaf extension 7.

S denotes a semicircular barrel containing the spring and concealing it from a front view.

9 denotes a cooperating leaf of the hinge connected to the leaf 1 by pintles 10 and 11, fixed in the outer knuckles 2 3 on leaf 1 and entering bearings in the inner knuckles 13 and 13X on leaf 9 as usual.

The end of the spring 4 extends through a slot 14 in the inner knuckle 13X and normally bears on the side Wall 15 of the slot, thereby resisting the opening of the hinge. Said end of the spring extending through slot 14 is held near a cam-like part 16 of the knuckle 2. The hinge -leaf 1 being fixed to a door-casing,

for example, and the leaf 9 to a door, if said door be opened the slot-Wall 15 will crowd the spring and overcoming its tension Will move the spring end 4 from the situation shown in Figs. 1 and 2 to that indicated in broken lines in Fig. 6. In this operation said spring end 4X at iirst moves adjacent but not contiguous to the rounded or cam-like part 16 of knuckle 2; but as said spring end approaches the situation approximately indi-v cated by 16 in Fig. 6 it comes in contact with the cam 16 and is thereby moved out'of contact with the Wall 15-that is, out of contact with the knuckle 13X of leaf 9. Said knuckle and leaf are thereby freed from the tension of the spring, Which is then confined entirely to the leaf 1, and consequently has no tendency to move either leaf. In closing the door 13X returns the spring along the part 16X of cam 16 until it passes off said part, whereupon it immediately engages the Wall 15'of the knuckle-slot and moves the leaf 9 and the door to which said leaf is fixed.

From the foregoing it may be 'understood that the resistance of the spring to the opening of a door is overcome and the spring put under tension in the usual manner until, according to my present improvement, the bearing and pressure of the spring are taken off from leaf 9-that is, from the side Wall 15 of the slot 14-and transferred from the camlike part 16 of the proximate outer knuckle 2 of leaf 1, whereby the action of the spring is neutralized Without impairing its tension, Which is maintainedinoperative because both ends of the spring are then held by the same hinge-leaf. In use, therefore, the spring is rendered inoperative after its free or bearing end has been transferred by opening the hinge, as by openinga door to which the hinge has been applied, from leafl to leaf 9 and Will remain inoperative under any relative movement of the hinge-leaves that does not carry the said spring end off from a part of leaf 1 onto a part of leaf 9, and thereby render the tension of the spring operative on both leaves to close the hinge or close a door to which one of the leaves may have been attached in customary manner.

Obviously the part 16 can be varied in form to receive and hold inoperative the spring at an earlier or later stage of the door-opening IOO Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a spring-hinge, the combination of two leaves having pivotally-connected knuckles, and a spring having one end fixedly connected to one leaf and the other end loosely connected to the other leaf and normally bearing thereon to oppose relative movement of the leaves, and means to transfer the bearing of the spring from the last to the first named leaf upon putting the spring under tension by the relative movement of the leaves as in opening a door, whereby when the hinge is operatively connected to a closed door the spring resists the opening of the door until its movable end is made to bear on and to be restrained by the leaf to which it is fixed 2. In a spring-hinge, the combination of two leaves having pivotally-connected knuckles, and a spring having one end fixedly connected to one leaf and the other end loosely connected to the other leaf, and means to transfer the bearing of the spring from the last to the first named leafvupon putting the spring under tension by the relative movement of the leaves as in opening a door, said means comprising part of a knuckle situated in the path of the spring.

3. In a spring-hinge, the combination with two leaves pivotally connected at their knuckles, of a spring suitably attached at one end to a leaf, said leaf having a cam-surface in the path of the other end of the spring, and said surface being normally out of engagement with the spring.

4. In a spring-hinge, a spring, a leaf having means for holding one end of the spring in a fixed position, said leaf also having a surface adapted for a bearing for the other end of the same spring, and a second leaf normally pressed by the free end of the spring and constructed to cause the said -free end of the spring to bear on the same leaf to which its xed end is connected at a determined point in the relative movement of the hinged leaves.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES H. OCUMPAUGH.

y Witnesses:

E. G. HEMPEL, A. M. ZIMMER. 

